Love….

Why is love taboo? Why is it a scary vulnerable feeling to tell someone, especially someone of the opposite sex I love you?

Doesn’t it really mean that you accept someone as whole, or as incomplete as they are?

Doesn’t it only mean that you are not requiring them to change one piece of who they are and you are totally okay with them?

Doesn’t it only mean that you like everything about that person, including the things that you don’t like about that person?

Doesn’t it really mean that you are okay with all of their flaws as much as you with all of their accomplishments?

So why is there a sense of vulnerability surrounding saying the dreaded words I love you?

Is it because of the unspoken expectation that you think they feel about saying they love you back?

Even if they are completely okay with everything weird about you, does that mean they must love it, or that it means they want intimacy?

Or is it that the world has placed the expectation that a relationship will or is supposed to blossom from love?

What if it’s a perfect friendship?

What if it’s nothing at all except you just saying to someone “I appreciate who you are as a person and love how you appreciate who You are too.”

Why does love have to be so taboo?

Why does telling another person I love you have to be so taboo?

Why can’t we just say what we feel and expect nothing from anyone, and not feel the need to respond except with a thank you. I’m okay with receiving a thank you when I say I love you. I only want you to acknowledge my compliment because it is just that….. A compliment!

I love you!

The New Jim Crow

It is hard to abolish what you will not recognize. When it comes to slavery in the 21st century the problem presented with abolishing it is that no one wants to admit that it still legally exist in the first place. Without acknowledgment there cannot be a solution to fix it or abolish it, which is why the problem continues to grow.

Black men, women and children, are the highest amongst the incarcerated in the United States. The disciplines are not working together to abolish slavery because they are not working on it at all. There are a few individuals, such as Michelle Alexander who wrote the book: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness: THE NEW JIM CROW, who sees mass incarceration of black people as a major issue that needs to immediately be addressed. The rest of the world has turned a blind eye to the problem, thereby no addressing, but ignoring the problem altogether.

The solution to this problem is removing the outdated laws regarding drug laws, minimum sentencing and the three strikes laws as options for the courts. These laws are targeted at low income, minimum education having black men. In addition, upholding the “due process” and “speedy trial” granted by the constitution could solve some of this problem. These men are not going to trial for their convictions, many are serving years under a plea bargain offered to them by the district attorney; after having spent years in jail waiting for a trial.

Unfortunately, once many of these men get a criminal record they are left without any hope of ever having the possibility to be an active and participating citizen in their communities, leading to recidivism. The laws must be changed.

No one is perfect and without flaw. Most, if not all, Americans have made some illegal mistake and have been lucky enough to miss the impacts of the criminal justice system. Unfortunately, with the policing in black communities, these men and children don’t have the same opportunity to make an illegal mistake and get a pass to continue pursuing a life of freedom, and the liberties so many of us experience each day.

Instead, these men are locked away for years from their families and friends, forced to work like slaves for the major corporations who own and run the Prison Industrial Complex, for pennies an hour. They are stripped of everything! There is no such thing as time served. These men are treated like criminals for the rest of their lives, unable to find a job, unable to vote, and left to fend for themselves in a capitalist economy.

How can we continue to turn our backs on millions of American citizens each day, living our lives as if this is not a problem, just because it is not our problem?